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Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

#41 Guest_Dark Daze_*

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Posted 24 June 2005 - 11:31 AM

BYU huh? That explains the Card rec.

Hopefully, that won't keep out any sex and violence.
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#42 User is offline   ObsoleteResolve 

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Posted 25 June 2005 - 07:38 PM

Wow. I certainly hope that I, some day, recieve such a review from someone as acclaimed as Card! Damn- I just read that. Yeah. I've been thinking about picking up Elantris, and now I definitely think I will. Just let me print out my 25% off coupon :-D

Man. Are you all saying I should pick Peake back up? Damnit, peoples. I'm not normally confounded by a persons language, but Peake succeeds to a startling degree- I literally had to pick up a dictionary several time for the first two to three pages. Which is about when I said, "Screw this. My brainmeats hurt."

I've got too many books I should pick up now: Cowl by Neal Asher; some Mieville; Feast of Dragons when it comes out; and now Elantris. To top it off, I'm still waiting (damned Supersaver Shipping- I'm hating myself for not paying the six dollars shipping) for Tyranny of the Night and Cobleys' "Shadowkings."

And I'm sure if I get to a bookstore tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll end up distracted by some purty book and, well, back to step one . . . IT'S A CONSPIRACY TO TAKE MY MONEY!

.david
-Hey, I've found some damned good authors with that method: Micheal Stackpole, Steven Erikson, Julian May, Neal Asher, Guy Gavriel Kay, and more.
-And I'm tempted by the 30$ Bargin Book (65$ normal): Signed, Numbered edition of F.Paul Wilsons' latest Repairman Jack novel. Hey! Him and Jim Butcher are my crack! STOP LOOKING AT ME THAT WAY!
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile!"- Kurt Vonnegut
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#43 Guest_Dark Daze_*

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Posted 25 June 2005 - 06:24 PM

Card's web site...Finally a science fiction writer tackling things like dental floss and Party of Five.
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#44 Guest_johnturing_*

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Posted 19 June 2005 - 05:49 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Lady Atheilen:
LOL, well, maybe I should have been more clear. I didn't think the essay was bad. It just seems like on every single forum I attend, somebody has to bring up Tolkien and whether or not he was good/bad for the genre. It usually degenerates pretty quickly into OMGTolkienshouldneverhaveexisted!!!!111 Mieville is TEH ROXXORZ!!!!!! vs. HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE SACRED WORDS OF THE MASTER OMG???? MIEVILLE IS AN UPSTART!!!! (Mieville ALWAYS comes up.) As someone who likes both authors but isn't passionate about either, I get bored of this really quickly, so at any hint of it, I am on the defensive. Most of these posters don't make their point as well as you do, at least not past the first two posts.

Looking forward to starting the book. Will certainly post what I thought here. One of the reasons I have trepidation is that my expectations are high, so if it's merely okay I'll be disappointed.

Thanks for stopping by.

Athi


Actually, Mieville never comes up because most people haven't heard of him. Instead it's usually people saying Jordan is extremely original and Tolkien was really bad and vice versa.
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#45 User is offline   euol 

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Posted 24 June 2005 - 03:21 PM

quote:
Love is a battlefield.* Prose should not be.


Lol. This is an argument older than any of us. I’m not sure if I could add anything useful to it.

Personally, I fall on the Orwellian side--I try to make my prose as translucent as possible. However, there's certainly something to be said for the authors who can craft beautiful prose. That's not where my interest in writing lies--I'm a storyteller--but I can appreciate some good beauty in writing. I'll give Mieville a read.

quote:
BYU huh? That explains the Card rec.


Actually, you'd probably be surprised. The Card rec. was probably the most honest one I received. I didn't know Scott--I had emailed him to ask his opinion on various grad programs, since he's known to rant on this topic. We got into a discussion, and I mentioned I had a book coming out. He said I could send him the galleys.

If you know anything about Scott, you'll realize that he's VERY opinionated. To be honest, I was rather worried about sending him the book. He doesn't tend to have lukewarm reactions. My editor promised me that if he didn't like it, he probably wouldn't say anything at all--so I should be safe. However, none of us were expecting the article he ended up writing:

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everyth...004-10-31.shtml

It just kind of popped up out of nowhere. I'll tell you this, though--if Scott is anything, it's brutally honest. If he hadn't liked the book, he wouldn't have given me a quote. Coming from BYU probably got me past the initial filter to start our discussion, but after that, it was his name on the line. A lot of authors are very careful with whom they cover quote. Their name is a valuable commodity.

As for sex and violence, well, I write books as the story demands. I stay away from writing things of an explicit nature, but I also try to stay away from painting the world in nice colors. I want to write something that my fourteen-year-old sister could read, but something that I will also be proud of as a storyteller. You'll have to determine for yourself how well you think I walked that balance.
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#46 User is offline   Lady Atheilen 

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Posted 25 June 2005 - 01:32 PM

It was the Card rec that made me pick the book up. My political views are close to the total opposite of his, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to judge a good story (and by good I mean 'something I would like.')

From where I am in the book, there's no sex and very little graphic violence, but I don't think the story really needs them to succeed. I've read books where I thought sex was or sould be a vital part. This isn't one of them.
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#47 User is offline   Lady Atheilen 

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Posted 08 June 2005 - 08:29 AM

*groan*

Can we just STOP that debate already? It was boring the first 17987426631 times I've heard it.
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#48 User is offline   Lady Atheilen 

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Posted 19 June 2005 - 07:51 AM

REALLY? That's hilarious! I've never seen a thread like that, though.
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#49 Guest_Dark Daze_*

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Posted 09 June 2005 - 09:55 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Ainulindale:
He had some interesting (by that I mean repeating what superior writers have already said) things to say Here


You implied that Brandon repeated what Michael Moorcock, China Mieville, and M. John Harrison said about Tolkien ( http://www.fantasybo...topic.php?t=776 .) I can't remember the details of Mieville's critiques, and I never read the critiques by Harrison, but Brandon's rant is at least distinct from Moorcock's attacks.

Brandon's rant says that Tolkien impeded later authors from building original worlds. http://www.brandonsa...ticle.php?id=22

Moorcock, on the other hand, implies that later authors borrowed Tolkien's plots, but he also implies that these writers were unlikely to create original plots even if there hadn't been a LOTR.

"That such writers also depend upon recycling the plots of their literary superiors and are rewarded for this bland repetition isn't surprising in a world of sensation movies and manufactured pop bands." -- Michael Moorcock from his article Epic Pooh

Moorcock further implies that fantasy writers can't write literate prose, but he doesn't blame Tolkien for that.

"He is lucky in that he appears to be the only Terry in fantasy land who is able to write a decent complex sentence." Moorcock, Epic Pooh

Moreover, Moorcock might dismiss Brandon's rant as superficial and irrelevant.

"Doubtless Tolkien will also inspire writers who will take his raw materials and put them to nobler uses."

Considering that Epic Pooh criticizes Tolkien for being too sentimental and conservative (especially in terms of language and in conveying the shire as some sort of utopia) rather than focusing on Tolkien's world building implies that Moorcock didn't mind the use of elves, magicians, and dark lords as long as they weren't used to support Tolkien's world view.

The full Moorcock article: http://revolutionsf.com/article.html?id=953&page=1

Also see: http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessi...22_1&sbid=lc04a
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#50 User is offline   euol 

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Posted 23 June 2005 - 10:49 PM

quote:
Instead it's usually people saying Jordan is extremely original and Tolkien was really bad and vice versa.


I once had a friend who read Tolkien and then complained that it was just a cheap Terry Brooks ripoff.

No kidding.

As for Mieville, I'm afraid I haven't read him. I really feel that I should, though--I even have a copy of Perdido Street Station.
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